Where was Pauline?
Something is badly wrong with the mail service at the office of Pauline Green, Labour MEP and leader of the Socialist group in the European parliament. At a press lunch with 30 assembled Euro-journalists at the height of the political clash between parliament and commission, she denied "any contacts" with Tony Blair. She was then startled when a Guardian hack began citing chunks from Blair's letter to her about the importance of keeping the Brussels show on the road for the sake of the enormous reform agenda. The missing letter from Blair turned up on Pauline's desk later that day. She also claims never to have had a copy of the letter which the commission whistle-blower, auditor Paul van Buitenen, sent to her and to all other political group leaders. It described his reasons for triggering the current crisis by giving to parliament the dossiers which the commission hierarchy were failing to address. Funny: all the other leaders got their copy. Green's staff say that for some odd reason, all their mail has been going to a parliamentary office in Luxembourg. How mysterious. Who better to investigate than former policewoman Green?
Parliament arise!
The parliament is soon going to get even more assertive. The Amsterdam treaty gives it a new veto over the nominee whom the 15 member states choose as Jacques Santer's replacement. MEPs are planning US Senate-style confirmation hearings, at which they will set various conditions on the job. And the MEPs will for once include some poachers-turned-gamekeepers. The next parliament is almost certain to include Nick Clegg, currently in Leon Brittan's "cabinet," as a Liberal-Democrat. And the fetching Lousewies van der Laan is high on the candidates' list of the Dutch reform party, D-66. Currently spokeswoman for Hans van den Broek, the foreign affairs commissioner, Lousewies has made no secret of her disgust at the commission's secretive ways; she has said publicly that budget commissioner Erkki Liikanen should have resigned over the fraud scandal and cover-up in the EU's humanitarian affairs office. The US-educated and disco-loving van der Laan, who is surely too much fun for the Dutch press story which suggested that she was being groomed to marry the heir to the Dutch throne, may have one difficulty. One of the most serious scandals being investigated by the court of auditors relates to the "Chernobyl Fund," the ?600m the EU paid out to repair or make safe the nuclear power stations of the old Soviet bloc. This was the responsibility of van den Broek's department. Furious at the way all the fraud inquiries have hitherto focused on Socialist commissioners, the Socialists are sharpening their knives for Christian Democrats such as van den Broek. They are also eyeing Franz Fischler's agriculture portfolio, where fraud is endemic, from fake olive trees to herds of cattle moving back and forth across the Irish border, collecting subsidies each time. But as Fischler's cheerful Irish spokesman Gerry Kiely says with a wink: "There's no fraud in DG-6-whenever we find any we just change the regulations to make it legal."
Too many Germans
Some tricky political in-fighting in the Conservative political group in the parliament, known as the European People's Party (EPP). The plump and affable German Christian Democrat Elmar Brok was reckoned to be a shoo-in for the leadership, but the current EPP leader Wilfried Martens of Belgium has been discreetly backing Hans-Gert Poettering, Brok's rival German, for the post. Martens, a former Belgian prime minister and a cunning old fox, thinks he can keep his job while the two Germans battle it out. To make himself more secure, Martens has also arranged the election of another German, Klaus Welle, to be the EPP general-secretary. Now the emollient Martens is suggesting to all the other nationalities that we can't have Germans doing all the jobs, can we?
Santer's parachutes
My report in Prospect's last issue, that Santer was hoping to parachute some of his personal "cabinet" into his proposed new independent fraud-busting office, has alerted MEPs to stop it. Santer had wanted to give the top job to his current spokeswoman Martine Reicherts, a former tax lawyer in Luxembourg. Nicknamed "Third Reicherts" by the hacks for her winning ways, her chances are reckoned to be slimmer now that Santer has presided over the worst crisis in the commission's history. Not that the parliament's fury over fraud, mismanagement and commission cronyism has had much impact. Portuguese commissioner Joao Pinheiro has just found the perfect chap to be deputy chef du cabinet-his brother-in-law.
